19 ¶ There was a certain
rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously
every day: [The phrase, "certain rich man" is also in v1.] 20 And there was a certain
beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, 21 And desiring to be
fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the
dogs came and licked his sores.

.22
And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels
into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;.23
And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar
off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

.24
And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus,
that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for
I am tormented in this flame. [note below.] 25 But Abraham said,
Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and
likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented..26
And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so
that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass
to us, that would come from thence.

.27
Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him
to my father's house: 28 For I have five brethren;
that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. 29 Abraham saith unto
him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. 30 And he said, Nay,
father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent..31
And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither
will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

The
rich man burns and lazarus can't help him

The Protestant Reformation corrected a number of errors that had crept
into the church over the ages, but the condition of man in death is one
which still needs careful consideration. Jesus told a story which seems
to say that people go to their reward at death, some to burning torture
and some to happiness. So
are dead people unconscious, sleeping in their graves or are they somewhere
else in either bliss or torment as this story seems to indicate? This is
a fair question. Of course the Holy Spirit who inspired the prophets
2pe0121
is also the Spirit of Christ 1pe0110f
whom He sent to guide us into all truth jn1613.
If we can understand all the texts correctly, we will find them in harmony.

To understand
this story we need to explore several questions: 1.
Why did Jesus tell it? 2.
Is this a parable — that is, a symbolic description? 3.
Even if the story were a parable, would it not be describing reality about
death? 4.
What circumstances of Jesus' listeners would He have been relating to in
order to bring conviction to their hearts? 5.
What does the story mean to us today?

1. Why did
Jesus tell the story?

Abraham's
final statement is the main point of the story. It is a clear rebuke to
the Jewish leaders. Let me paraphrase it. "If your brothers (Pharisees
listening to the story) have refused to hear the Scripture testimony of
Moses and the prophets, they will not listen, even if someone arises from
the dead." So consider the four reasons for the story v31:
Jesus wanted them to see their danger in persistent unbelief. The beggar's
name is significant. Jesus had raised Lazarus of Bethany but the Pharisees,
to whom the story was primarily addressed lu1401,
still refused to recognize Jesus as the life giver, even though they claimed
to believe in the resurrection ac2306-8.
They would be at serious risk of rejecting Him even after His own phenomenal
resurrection (John 12:42).Jesus
pointed out their misguided reverence for Abraham. The rich man, instead
of calling on God, actually prays to Abraham for mercy as if the patriarch
were in charge of his destiny. He calls him "Father Abraham" when only
our Father in heaven is our spiritual father (Matt. 23:9; 6:9). The Jews
imagined their spiritual and political status to depend on their lineage
as sons of Abraham (Luke 3:8).The
story is a rebuke to the selfishness of the Jewish leaders and wealthy
people who justified their imagined status with God by the theory that
they were blessed because of their piety (John 9:2, 3).It
is recorded in the Bible as a blessing for you and me, too. We'll talk
about that later.

These
descriptions of the underworld are radically different from what the rest
of the Bible teaches about death. If they had revealed new truth, Jesus
would certainly have explained. But no explanation is offered. Nothing
indicates that the symbols are to be taken literally. In fact, the events
surrounding the resurrection of Lazarus of Bethany confirm the information
about death in the rest of the Bible. According to Jesus' explanation,
Lazarus (not just his body) was in the tomb. Lazarus had not been in the
depths of the earth or in heaven. The removal of the stone clarifies where
Jesus' call was directed. Our Lord called Lazarus "forth," not down from
heaven or, according to the theory popular at the time, up from the underworld
(John 11:43).

2. Is this
a parable — a symbolic description?

Yes. Consider the following:
A literal drop of water on the rich man's tongue would hardly solve his
problem of burning in the torment of hell (Luke 16:24).
As a literal story, the picture of Abraham has problems, too. Abraham's
lap must be symbolic. Even those who believe that people go to their reward
at death consider it so Ab-bosm.
Abraham accepted the prayer of the rich man and responded to it v27.
A righteous person, on the good side of the gulf, would not have accepted
reverence due only to God jn1033,
ex2002f.
Abraham was not in the home of the saved. He had not yet received the reward
of his faith. This assertion takes a bit of explanation. The Bible passage
at the end of Hebrews 11 which reveals where he was (and still is) needs
to be seen in context to be understood. You may wish to read through from
the end of chapter 10 to the beginning of chapter 12. I'll quote significant
verses: "Cast
not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward."
(Hebrews 10:35). Jesus had not returned as expected and the Hebrew believers
were getting discouraged. The basis for courage they needed is seen in
chapter 11. There, they (and we) are directed to have faith in the promises
of our reward. Abraham is one of the heroes, in the chapter, who were witnesses
of the kind of faith the Hebrew Christians needed. Let's
see what the passage says about Abraham. "By faith Abraham, when he was
called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance,
obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned
in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles
with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked
for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." (Heb.
11:8-10). So
Abraham's faith objective was the heavenly city. In Rev. 21 we may see
it coming down from God out of heaven at the end of the thousand years
re2102
(also see jn1401ff). Has Abraham
received this reward of his faith? Let's look at the conclusion of the
listing of all the faithful ones in chapter 11. These Old Testament
heroes had all died, comparing them to the Hebrew Christians, who were
living at the time. "And
these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the
promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without
us should not be made perfect." (Heb. 11:39, 40). The
"good report" of the heroes is their testimony of faithfulness (compare
nu1332).
In Heb. 12:1 we see that they are thus witness of faith. Chapter 11, which
tells of their fidelity, is a summary of the faith of the Old Testament
heroes. In verses 40 and 41 (just quoted) we see that, although they had
been faithful, they had not yet received their reward and been made perfect.
The message for the Hebrew believers was that they should not be discouraged
about a long wait because the heroes were still waiting. For us, it clarifies
that the righteous dead are not in heaven. (On the cloud
in Heb. 12:1, see our earlier discussion.) What
does it mean to be "made perfect"? When Jesus comes, the bodies of the
living righteous, which are subject to decay and death, will be changed.
They will be forever free from decay (corruption) and the possibility of
death (mortality). In this sense we will be "made perfect" 1co1550-55.
Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17 that the dead in Christ will
rise from the grave at His coming. Then those who are living will be caught
up with them. This is the same truth we find in Hebrews 11:40. The
righteous people who are dead when Christ returns and those who are living
get their reward at the same time. The city Abraham looked for — the one
with foundations "whose builder and maker is God" — is in heaven (Rev.
21:9-14). He has not yet seen it. So
where is He? Still sleeping (dead) in sheol/hades (the grave, ge4238)
awaiting the call of Christ at His coming. How do we know? Because we are
still waiting for our reward, too. No faithful person is rewarded before
all are. This
brings us back to Abraham with Lazarus sitting on his lap. It's a parable
Jesus told. He was teaching the rich Pharisees the importance of unselfishness,
and that they were apt to get the reward symbolized by the rich man in
the parable (John 5:39). Let's look at more evidence that this is a parable.Is
the fire of hell burning now? See on re1411
– and remember to return :-)The
story even argues against those who use it today to support the popular
idea of where the righteous dead now are. Notice, near the end of the story,
that the request was for Lazarus to be raised (taken up) to be on the surface
of the earth where the brothers were. Today most Christians believe that
righteous dead people spend the time between death and the resurrection,
in heaven, not under the ground next door to hell as in our story.Paul
likely had doctrinal errors like this in mind when he wrote of "Jewish
fables" tt0114.

3. Even
if the story were a parable, would it not be describing reality about death?

To respond,
we will (a) consider what the Bible teaches about death, and (b) look at
another parable with a situation which, outside of its context, would not
represent correct theology.

If taken literally, the story would
contradict the rest of the Bible on the topic of death. Let's
review what the Bible teaches about death. The explanation in Scripture
is fairly simple:
As we just discovered in the case of Abraham, the dead do not go to their
reward at death AbH,
re2212.
And Peter explained that David had not yet ascended to heaven ac0229-34.Death
is described by the metaphor of sleep until being awakened at the resurrection
1th0416,
ps01715,
jn0528f.
When Lazarus of Bethany died, Jesus said he was sleeping and then explained
that he was dead jn1111-4.
It is described this way all through the Old Testament - 1ki1143,
1ki1431.The
dead do not know what is happening during their "sleep." ec0905,6,10;
is3818f;
ps14604.
The second death, to be experienced by the wicked at the end of the thousand
years, will be different re2006.
It will be outer darkness mt2530
— a night from which they will never awaken.

Jesus told other stories which would
teach error if presented without the intended conclusions. In fact, He told
such a parable just before he told about the rich man and Lazarus and he
told another one in the next chapter.In
verses 1-9 of this chapter we see a manager for a rich man get fired. He
then tells the clients to cheat on what they owe, and the rich man tells
him he did the right thing! Please take a minute to look at the story as
Jesus told it and the comments there v1ff.
Jesus would certainly not have been recommending this behavior.In
a parable in the next chapter, Jesus illustrates His point by describing
a master with selfish expectations of his slave lu1707ff.
It would teach the wrong lesson if seen as illustrating how to treat servants.
His point was about faith. So, in its larger context,
the story of the rich man and Lazarus appears essentially between two others
which would also teach false doctrine if isolated from their intended lessons.

4. In the
parable of the rich man and Lazarus, what circumstances of Jesus' listeners
would He have been relating to in order to bring conviction to their hearts?

To answer we will look at
(a) the immediate context — always a good idea, (b) a teaching from the
Jewish tradition which the Pharisees would have been familiar with, (c)
confirmation of the philosophical idea in the writings of Josephus, and
(d) pagan teachings which would have influenced the philosophical idea.

The context (beginning
with the conclusion to the parable of the unjust steward) "He that is faithful
in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust
in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful
in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall
give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters: for
either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to
the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Jesus was about to reinforce
this counsel with our story about the rich man and Lazarus. First Luke's
explanation: "And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these
things: and they derided him. And he said unto them, Ye are they which
justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which
is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. The law
and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is
preached, and every man presseth into it. . . . There was a certain rich
man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously
every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus. . . ." (Luke 16:10-20). The Pharisees were followers
of mammon v13.
They had a wrong sense of value and had denied the reality of their own
situation. Jesus told them the parable of the rich man and Lazarus as another
appeal to their hearts. The chosen people had drifted far from the purity
of doctrine that God had given, picking up ideas from Pagan religions.
Jesus was talking to them in their own language. If they had not been familiar
with the scenario of the parable, their focus would have been on the strange
ideas rather than on the message. If they had not at least valued the pagan
ideas about death, they would have scorned them as heresy using the encounter
to turn the people away from Christ. It would have been brought up in the
testimonies in His trial. And they would have missed the point of His message. This, I believe, is basically
why He built His appeal on symbolism from this false theory. Like commending
the dishonest steward for his greed, Jesus used the pitiful beliefs of
the Pharisees to help them see their real need. He would not have been
recommending their strange beliefs because He had told His disciples to
beware "of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." mt1611.
He appealed to their pagan mentality also in jn0822f. The Pharisees had protested
when Jesus told about the unfaithful steward v14,
but after the hard-hitting parable about the rich man they apparently had
nothing to say. If they had accused Jesus of false doctrine, He would have
asked why they believed it. If they had approved, He would have asked why
they rejected what "Moses and the prophets" taught about death. The word "Hades" is transliterated
(spelled by the sounds in the original language) from a Greek term which
means the grave. In Hebrew, it is sheol. As we saw earlier (1411d),
the place of burning is not Hades/Sheol but Gehenna (Ge-enna). The two
concepts have mistakenly been blended into one and loaded with speculative
theories. The amalgamated definition of hell is then read back into the
Bible passages making them say what the original language did not intend. In the same way, the Bible
terms "soul" and "spirit" do not have the same meaning but are thought
of as synonyms. This leads to misunderstanding when reading the texts that
use them.

A parable from Jewish tradition
Jesus built His story on a parable His hearers would have known well. He
changed it to bring home His point. The story they knew had become part
of the Mishnah which is a set of rabbinic traditional rules compiled around
AD 200. The Jewish Talmud was developed from the Mishnah.

In a story in the Talmud, a girl
who dies gets the angel of death to ask someone who is to die the next
day to bring her comb and a vial of eye-paint. The angel is "Dumah." In
the commentary, is the following explanation of him:

"In rabbinic fokelore,
this [Duma] is the name of the guardian angel whose task it is to announce
to 'the glorious dead' in the celestial regions that 'so-and-so,' now pacing
the earth below, is about to enter the eternal realms above. In the Talmud
('A.Z., 20b), he is described as being 'all eyes' and the absolute lord
of the silence (dumah has that connotation) that opens with the
grave, or She'ol (Hell); cf. Hag. 5a; Shab 152b. Dumah is
the angel responsible for the heavenly soul about to be born into the lower
world, 'a feather plucked from the pinions on high to be dropped into the
lap of motherhood.' "The ancient
Arabs also put their faith in an angel of that name. . . . "Generally speaking,
it is the duty of the Angel of Death to deliver into the cavern of Dumah
every soul whose term of life has ended. Each soul is placed in one of
two categories: the righteous assigned to where all is bliss and the rest,
the wicked committed to the place of 'doom.' . . . "In the realm of angelology,
it is he who seizes the souls of the wicked and casts them down 'in the
hollow of a sling' far into the depths of Hades. This he does week after
week at the close of the Sabbath. . . . "To the author
of the Zohar, Dumah was originally the guardian angel of Egypt fleeing
from the Divine decree, as described in Ex. XII, 12, he was dispatched
to the nether world as president of the spirits of the dead. In mythology,
Dumah
is the name of one of the seven gates of Hell, through which enter all
that are guilty of slander."

The more direct commentary on the
story reveals the Jewish thinking.

". . . we must
still bear in mind that even the most allegorical of the tales have factual
elements in them, and it is difficult to determine, in any given tale,
where the author meant to report facts, and where he was merely allegorising.
. . . But we can say that imagination also has its rationale, and aggadic
tales, however, imaginative in form, are inherently rationalistic as pursuing
a defined moral or religious aim. In this case, the Aggada, with all its
imagery, seeks to impress upon the reader or listener the concept of 'life
after death,' a fundamental tenant of Judaism and, as its corollary, the
idea that 'the dead know,' and the central argument is whether this knowledge
is restricted to their own world, or extends to ours as well."

FASC. 26, Translated
with commentary by Rabbi Dr. A. Ehrman., p. 424.

From this commentary, note that:Opinions
about Dumah vary and have apparently evolved from mythology.Concepts
were apparently developed from mythology where Arabs held similar views.
This is not to say that Islam teaches this today. I don't know.To
Dumah are attributed characteristics which the Sacred Scriptures teach
belong only to God. "All eyes" would imitate God's ability to see all that
happens. Handling the wicked, according to the Bible, is God's work ro1219,
ps14520,
is1311.The
doctrine that "the dead know" is in direct contradiction to the truth God
had given to the Jews, and to us, through Solomon's book, Ecclesiastes:
"For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing,
neither have they any more a reward. . . ." (9:5). See on ec0905.Although
the Rabbinical concepts have, to some degree, changed, the Torah here has
ancient roots which still influence Jewish doctrines. For example, you
can see some differences between the Talmud comments and the explanation
of Josephus below.

Confirmation of the
traditional view from the writings of Josephus Most of the terms and
symbols in Jesus' story are also seen in the description of Hades attributed
to the Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus. He had studied the three Jewish
sects of the time: Pharisees, Saddusees, and Essenes and chose to be a
Pharisee. He wrote around the time of the destruction of Jerusalem (A.D.
70). Although this was after the time of Christ, we see, from the document,
that he was acting as a representative of his sect (or perhaps of Jews
in general). Thus we get an idea of what the Pharisees Jesus spoke to believed.
Josephus describes both righteous
and wicked being conscious in Hades,
their separation by a chasm,
unquenchable, unending fire, and
the Bosom of Abraham. (Part of the article is quoted later.) Josephus'
objective appears to have been to improve the thinking of the Greeks, convincing
them of the resurrection, a doctrine of the Pharisees. In his scheme, the
time in Hades is between death and the resurrection. The doctrine of Purgatory
was also developed from these ideas. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas taught
the idea of an ever-burning, fiery Hell. In 1253 it was formalized as church
doctrine.The pagan source of these
ideas. Let's now move back in history to see where Jesus' listeners
(and Josephus) got their ideas. Most of the historical notes which follow
were drawn from a book,
The History of Hell, by Alice K. Turner,
1993, 1995. The earliest accounts of
the land of the dead come from Sumerian clay tablets. Sumer, in the location
of modern Iraq, was conquered by the Akkadians and developed into Babylonia
with the city of Babylon. I expect that these people developed from the
post-flood rebellion against God involving the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11). We see the basic error which
Satan promoted and that opened the door to all the pagan theories concerning
consciousness in death or
the
immortality of the soul. In the garden of Eden he contradicted God's
counsel, telling Eve, "You shall not surely die." Moving through the Egyptian
"book of the dead" papyruses and Zorastrianism to the eighth century B.C.
we find a visit to the land of the dead in Homer's Odyssey, a fictional
account from classical Greece. The
works of Plato from the fourth century B.C. have been a strong influence
on subsequent religious beliefs including those of the Pharisees. In Jesus'
day, Greek culture was popular, making the ideas of Plato attractive to
people who wanted to be considered well educated. Most of Plato's writing on
the topic is in the account of the final discussion of Socrates supposedly
reported to Plato by Phaedo who was present in the hours before Socrates
drank the poison that ended his life. Some significant thoughts from this
work and another one are:
The soul and Hades, unlike the body, are eternal. Good souls are destined
to go invisibly to God. Wicked souls are to be newly imprisoned in other
bodies.
The true earth is in a sphere above the surface of our earth. A tunnel
is connected from it to the inside of our physical earth where Tartarus
(hell) is located.
Tartarus has rivers for various purposes and a lake called Lake Styx. Souls
who are not especially good or bad are purified for a year and released.
Very bad, "incurable" ones remain forever. Those who are not so bad can
ask those they wronged for forgiveness and, if it is granted, be released.
(Notice who thus becomes their savior.) Socrates expressed some uncertainty
but believed his ideas to be approximately correct.
Plato's work,
The Republic, includes the story of a soldier, Er,
who has a near-death experience. He sees good souls ascend "by the heavenly
way on the right hand" while sinners descend to be met by mean men who
drag them off and whip them. After twelve days they proceed to the spindle
where they choose the medium of their next incarnation.

Many elements of this picture
from Plato are in the description by Josephus. We may be reasonably sure
that Josephus, who would have been a student of the Pharisees shortly after
the time of Jesus, held essentially the same views as they did. This, with
other evidence already mentioned, brings us to the conclusion that Jesus
spoke to the Pharisees in terms and theories they believed. Even if Josephus was not
the author of the "discourse," it must represent the appeal to the Greeks
in terms of contemporary doctrine. Plato's idea of good souls
going invisibly to God is part of the picture many Christians hold today.
It was adopted and developed into the doctrine of purgatory by the church
of the Middle Ages.

Now as to Hades, wherein
the souls of the righteous and unrighteous are detained, it is necessary
to speak of it. Hades is the place in the world not regularly finished;
a subterraneous region, wherein the light of the world does not shine.
. . . This region is allotted as a place of custody for souls, in which
angels are appointed as guardians to them, who distribute to them temporary
punishments, agreeable to every one's behaviour and manners.
In this region there is a certain place set apart, as a lake of unquenchable
fire. . . . . . . there is one
descent into this region, at whose gate we [Jews] believe there stands
an archangel with an host; which gate . . . those pass through that
are conducted down by angels. . . ; the just are guided to the right hand,
and are led with hymns, sung by the angels appointed over that place, unto
a region of light, in which the just have dwelt from the beginning of the
world . . . ever enjoying the prospect of the good things they see and
rejoicing in the expectation of those new enjoyments . . . [with]
the countenance of the fathers and of the just, which they see, always
smiles upon them, while they wait for that rest and eternal new life in
heaven, which is to succeed this region. This place we call The Bosom of
Abraham. But as to the unjust,
they are dragged by force to the left hand by the angels allotted for punishment,
no longer going with a good-will, but as prisoners driven by violence;
to whom are sent the angels appointed over them to reproach them and threaten
them with their terrible looks, and to thrust them still downwards. . .
. but where they see the place [or choir] of the fathers and of the just,
even hereby are they punished; for a chaos deep and large is fixed between
them; insomuch that a just man that hath compassion upon them cannot be
admitted, nor can one that is unjust, if he were bold enough to attempt
it, pass over it. This is the discourse
concerning Hades, wherein the souls of all men are confined until a proper
season, which God hath determined, when he will make a resurrection of
all men from the dead, not procuring a transmigration of souls from one
body to another, but raising again those very bodies, which you Greeks,
seeing to be dissolved, do not believe [their resurrection]. . . . And
to every body shall its own soul be restored. . . . But for the unjust,
they will receive their bodies not changed, not freed from diseases or
distempers nor made glorious. . . . For all men, the just
as well as the unjust, shall be brought before God the Word; for to him
hath the Father committed all judgment. . . . giving justly to those that
have done well an everlasting fruition: but allotting to the lovers of
wicked works eternal punishment. To these belong the unquenchable fire,
and that without end, and a certain fiery worm, never dying, and not destroying
the body. . . ."

6. What
the story of the rich man and Lazarus means to us

This is a question you might
want to answer. At least you can add your thoughts to my own list:Some
Bible passages need careful study to understand their meaning.We
have a responsibility to those less fortunate than ourselves just as the
rich man did.God
measures spiritual greatness differently than we tend to. Many of the most
miserable on this earth will have the most splendid homes in heaven.When
we are convicted of new principles from the Word of God, we need to put
them into practice. To resist the call of the Holy Spirit is to move farther
from God.In
sharing truth, we meet people where they are. This does not mean approving
ideas we know to be false, but it does mean moving slowly and avoiding
a condemning attitude.

One day, if faithful, we
will
be called from the grave or be transformed to be caught up to meet our
Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). What a glorious day that will be!

Click
for a page of links to the above and other discussion of the state of the
dead.